Darcy Spears

Chief Investigative Reporter

Share Article

Copyright 2015 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Chief Investigative Reporter Darcy Spears has won multiple Emmys, Edward R. Murrow awards, Genesis awards and Associated Press awards on both a national and local scale for her unparalleled journalism.

Darcy's most recent honors are two 2014 Emmys.

One in the Military category for her series on how the VA is failing veterans when it comes to healthcare; and one in the Health/Science category entitled "Prescription for Pain" about how legitimate pain patients are delayed or denied at local pharmacies.

This brings Darcy's Emmy total to 14.

She was also recently honored with the 2014 Genesis Award for two Outstanding Local News series, "Unhappy Trails at Sagebrush Ranch" and "Rescue Gone Wrong." These reports raised awareness of animal protection issues with intrepid reporting on a horseback riding facility notorious for neglecting and mistreating its horses, and for exposing a so-called dog rescue group that provides anything but a safe haven for its animals.

In past years, some of Darcy's other awards include an Associated Press Mark Twain award for her ongoing "HOA Hall of Shame" coverage and a National Press Club honorable mention for her series on animal trapping.

She won a 2013 Emmy for Journalistic Enterprise. The entry included stories on the Quest Academy charter school misspending public money, hunters paying to participate in organized coyote massacres called "varmint hunts;" one of our HOA Hall of Shame stories where a homeowner received death threats; a woman who was retaliated against and bullied by her neighbor after turning in his son for drowning two newborn kittens in a cup of water; and a special needs teacher who'd been fighting Bank of America to keep her home.

Other Emmys she's won were for reports entitled "Foster Care Nightmare" about a family ripped apart by the Clark County Foster Care System; for her series of "You Paid For It" investigations into school spending; for her investigation into allegations of deceptive trade practices at the auto repair chain Tire Works; for her story on fire guards who were paid to watch portable school classrooms in case they caught on fire; and for an emotional story chronicling how the death of 58-year-old Jimmy Comito showcased the failure of our valley's medical system to provide critical care.

She's been investigating Las Vegas for 20 years and her stories have changed lives, laws and taught lessons to those who would do wrong. Her recent focus on Nevada's Guardianship system resulted in the state Supreme Court creating a review panel to initiate a state-wide overhaul of a corrupt court process that victimizes the very vulnerable people it's supposed to protect.

You can catch Darcy every Monday night at 11 p.m. with Dirty Dining; a viewer favorite exposing restaurant health inspections. In addition to her weekly segment, Darcy's investigative work has protected taxpayers, exposed government malfeasance, shined a spotlight on daycare dangers, air pollution, animal welfare, veterans health care and medical malpractice.

She even got the El Rancho torn down, a Las Vegas landmark-turned-eyesore that was secretly being used as a front for a world-wide investment scam right under the noses of county regulators.

Darcy has wanted to be a journalist since childhood. She attended the University of California, Berkeley where she received a B.A. in Mass Communications and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where she earned her Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism.

She hails from Los Angeles, CA and worked at CBS in Chicago before relocating to Las Vegas.